Going EMO

My daughter and her friends can laugh like there’s no tomorrow one moment and in the next instant be bitter at someone for a comment that was most assuredly said without any malice. It’s these highly emotional (EMO) swings that a parent expects from their pre-teen and teenage children who are trying to figure out life. Fortunately, with a little parental guidance, most kids fix their problems. Sometimes that fix is as simple as a few days of “no phone calls or TMs with Megan,” or whoever the sniper happened to be who instigated the latest EMO moment.

When adults, however, allow themselves to snipe and unleash their cat claws over an action or comment, my patience runs thin. Adults (and I use that term loosely) should rely on the coping skills they’ve learned and developed when life situations happen, whether in the workplace, at a family event, or with a significant other or close friends. Unfortunately some people can’t cope. They take an issue and run headlong with it like a bible-thumping evangelist without a congregation – eventually erupting in divisive and immature behavior.

There are so many wonderful outlets to deal with EMO issues. Journaling. Music. Meditation. Peer counseling. Even self-talk in the car where no one can talk back – because, after all, it’s not specific advice we need during such periods, but time. Time to understand what’s happened and why. Time to ponder and reflect on the circumstances. Time to heal the wounds. Then, to reach out and forgive. Because – if a 16-year-old, hormonally filled teenager can bounce right back from an EMO setback with her best friend or boyfriend, then a mature, grown, educated, thoughtful, respecting adult should be able to trump that and then some.

Digs and barbs may feel good as a release mechanism. Go ahead…think them. Say them out loud to yourself. Smile at how witty it would be to sting that former friend or co-worker with your pithy words. But don’t fall into the gutter and blast someone who’s intentions were always the best and who never gave cause for such lashing out in the past. We all face EMO moments. In the end, no pithy, derogatory phrase can heal a wound like self-realization and forgiveness. It can only spoil the relationship further, causing regret and additional EMO. And life’s too short for that!

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All Philosophic on How to Live

The twists and turns we experience in life make it just that…life. What plan or path we choose to follow makes all the difference in the life we’re granted to live each day. On most mornings we wake up to the expected normalcy that we have come so accustomed to in life. Then, based on our decision making, our choices, our individual actions and reactions to events happening around, us we experience the day. By the end of that day, we lay our head on our pillows knowing that, generally, we’ll wake to the normalcy we have generated and expect.

On those occasional days that our actions or reactions result in dramatic change, we go to bed knowing that nothing will feel the same way it has in the recent past. These days can be looked upon with excitement. Conversely they can be looked on with angst. Not all change is change for the better, but sometimes it is this inevitable adjustment and readjustment that we have to go through in order to maintain some semblance of what life is meant to be.

Mistakes get made. That’s life. For example, in the movie, “Meet Joe Black,” Anthony Hopkin’s character, William Parrish, addresses the importance of having taken the risk to love in life:

I say find someone you can love like crazy and who'll love you the same way back. And how do you find him? Forget your head and listen to your heart. I'm not hearing any heart. Run the risk, if you get hurt, you'll come back. Because, the truth is there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love - well, you haven't lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven't tried, you haven't lived.

Risks, like leaping on faith to love, change the paths we’re on. They shake us. Make us think twice. Make us embrace decisions or wonder and worry.

Decisions with risk mean laying your head down at the end of the day knowing tomorrow may not bring normalcy. You may wake feeling completely alone or you may feel untold happiness. Either way, you won’t know if you don’t take those risks and really LIVE the life you’ve been granted.

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My Own Worst Enemy

This morning I heard this song played as bumper music to a radio talk show I listen to on my commute to work. It brought back a ton of memories. Here are the lyrics. It is performed by a band called Lit. Not sure if they even exist anymore, but the song's still a good one!

Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk
I didn't mean to call you that
I can't remember what was said or what you threw at me
Please tell me, please tell me
Why

My car is in the front yard, and
I'm Sleeping with my clothes on
Came in through the window last night
And your gone
Gone

It's no suprise to me I am my own worst enemy
'Cause every now and then I kick the living shit out of me
The smoke alarm is going off, and there's a cigarette
Still burning

Please tell me why my car is in the front yard and
I'm sleeping with my clothes on
Came in through the window last night
And your
Gone. Gone

Please tell me why my car is in the front yard and
I'm sleeping with my clothes on
I came in through the window last night

It's no suprise to me
I am my own worst enemy
'Cause every now and then I kick the living shit out of me
Can we forget about the things I said when I was drunk
I didn't mean to call you that

If you haven't heard the tune, go to iTunes and get it. It'll definitely make you smile.

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He Has Spoken

Our President has spoken.

The War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan fell off the winning track late last year. With that comes the inevitable...sending even more troops to Iraq. National Guard members based in Minnesota will make up more than 1/10th of the 20,000 additional troops deployed to Iraq in the coming months.

Sending more troops to Iraq means the death toll will rise even further. When wars are fought, mistakes are made and blood is shed - sometimes the blood of innocent bystanders. Oftentimes, the blood of soldiers on both sides of the cause. More U.S. soldiers will die in 2007, without question. But somehow, our Commander in Chief will find ways to believe and say that these casualties only mean that we are winning in Iraq, not losing as the pictures and video might indicate.

President Bush isn't alone in feeling like this surge of new soldiers to Iraq will make the difference. But there are more opposed to the idea than for it.

On Jan. 10, after Bush's address to America, Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty, was among those who said he was extremely disappointed and frustrated by the extension.

"This decision by federal officials is not consistent with the expectation or understanding provided to our soldiers," Pawlenty said in a strongly worded statement. "It's unfair to them and their families."

No matter what people believe, the fact is that soldiers will land in Iraq and work their tails off to secure Bahgdad in the coming months. News outlets will continue to tell their stories and point out the mistakes that result in soldiers dying. However, if you're like Bush, you can read and watch these reports and view them as signs that we are actually winning in Iraq. Believe the opposite of what the media says because in Iraq, down is actually up. Losses are actually wins.

Success will only seem like a series of bloody, expensive blunders. The more it looks like we are losing Bush's war on terror in Iraq, the closer we will be to victory.

Why Do We Care About Saddam?

After a lengthy trial, guilty verdict, conviction to die and gallows hanging, the world continues to be fascinated by Saddam Hussein. Why?

At his hands thousands of his own people, mostly innocents, were tortured and killed. In the final hours, our own government tried to postpone Saddam's execution for fear the timing of his death would cause a upheaval among Iraqi citizens. Go figure. Don't you think the Iraqi government knows its people well enough to determine when and how and where a former dictator should be hanged?

And now, thanks to a sneaky cell phone with video capability, we can all go on the Web and watch Saddam meet his maker. Big deal. On any given night of the week our minor children sit on their sofas at home and scroll through 800 channels, many of which feature TV shows that include dismemberment, death and destruction -- often in animation designed to captivate and humor them.

Saddam is dead. A death that was long overdue, even if the Catholic church's position is that he should be spared because he's one of God's children. If George Bush #1 had the cajones to get the job done back in the '90s, Saddam would have been long forgotten. But today, he's one less tyrant bent on insanity who walks the earth spreading his vile orders. We should all move on.

Where's Osama?

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